Mumbai: Man sells livestock data online, lands in police net

He had been selling the data illegally through two websites; NSE manager posed as a customer to nab him

The Cyber police have arrested the West Bengal-based owner of two websites for allegedly procuring live data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and selling it illegally through the websites.

Interestingly, when a manager from NSE, who is also the complainant in the case, learnt about the fraudulent practice, he posed as a customer and purchased the stolen data from the two websites, to confirm his suspicion. He then lodged a complaint with the police, who arrested the accused on Saturday.

The accused, Rajendrakumar Chill, (32) is an IT graduate living in Vardhman district in West Bengal, and runs classes teaching how to flow live data online.

According to the police, the complainant was sent on deputation to DotEx Company which is a group company of NSE. NSE has given DotEx all the rights to sell live data like capital market data, future and option data, currency derivatives and wholesale debt market data.

The complainant told police that in October 2015 his company learnt that the capital market data, future and option data, currency derivatives and wholesale debt market data of NSE is being sold on a website, rtdsdata.com.

He informed company’s authorities and after seeking permission, decided to investigate the matter.

Manager investigates“The complainant first tried to collect the information by visiting the website, but could not succeed in his efforts. He then called the customer care officer of the website and asked how he could avail of live data of NSE. The officer informed him that live data is available, but to get it he needs to pay Rs 2,550 by online transaction. The complainant transferred the said amount in the bank account of one, Orbtron International,” said an officer from the cyber police station.

Meanwhile, the complainant learnt that another website, orbtronsinternational.com, was also selling NSE’s live data. When he contacted the customer support of that website he was asked to pay an amount of Rs 5,000 to avail of the data.

The complainant paid the amount and was given access to the live data of NSE by both the websites’ operators.

On analysing the data, the complainant found that the data was the same available on the NSE’s private system, and access to this data is restricted only to authorised vendors.

The complainant then approached the Cyber police station at BKC, and complained that the two websites have stolen NSE’s live data and were selling it illegally.

Investigators analysed the details of the bank accounts in which the money was deposited by the complainant.

The bank accounts were found to be in West Bengal and belonged to one Rajendrakumar Chill. The statements of these two accounts showed many people were depositing amounts of Rs 2,500, Rs 1,000 or Rs 500. Both the accounts had in all over Rs 18.19 lakh.

Police are finding if this amount is linked to the online transactions on the websites.

Culprit heldChill was asked by police to appear before them for investigation.

On Saturday when he appeared before the police, he was arrested after all the evidence pointed to his involvement in the crime. “When he was questioned from where he procured the data, he told investigators that he bought it from a Canada company. We have communicated with this foreign company checking veracity of his claims and further probing the matter,” said another officer involved in the probe.